succession

noun

suhk-SESH-uhn/səkˈsɛʃ.ən/

Pluralsuccessions

9 meanings of succession

Practice

1
nounusually singular
A series of things that come one after another in a set order.
The speech was interrupted by a succession of loud cheers from the crowd.
Events unfolded in rapid succession after the announcement.
Similarseries, sequence, string, chain
2
noununcountable
The act or fact of following another in sequence or order.
She was promoted twice in quick succession during her first year.
The notes were played in succession to form the melody.
Similarsequence, order
Note
Most often met in the fixed phrase in succession, which follows a count of repeated events: the fourth year in succession, three wins in succession. The phrase works like an adverb, telling how things happened rather than naming them. When the series itself is the thing being talked about, English turns to the countable 'series' meaning, as in a succession of corners.
3
nouncountable or uncountable
The transfer of royal power or a throne from one ruler to the one who follows.
The queen's death raised urgent questions about the succession.
Civil war broke out when rivals contested the succession.
4
noununcountable
A legal right to take possession of property or an estate, especially as an heir.
The will established her succession to the entire estate.
Disputes over succession to the land lasted for generations.
Similarinheritance
5
nouncountable
A line or series of descendants traced from a common ancestor.
The novel follows a succession of descendants across five generations.
He was the last of a noble succession that had endured for centuries.
Similarline, lineage
6
noununcountable
A planned rotation in which different crops follow one another on the same ground.
The garden's succession ensured fresh vegetables from spring through fall.
Crop succession reduces pests and keeps the soil rich in nutrients.
Similarrotation
Note
Farming borrows the word for the order of crops on a single plot. As one harvest finishes, the next planting is already maturing, so the ground keeps producing and the soil keeps its fertility. The word stays close to rotation, and the two can usually stand in for each other when the talk is of fields and gardens.
7
nouncountable
A group of rock layers or strata arranged in the chronological order in which they formed.
The limestone succession records millions of years of marine deposition.
Field mapping revealed a thick succession of sandstone and shale.
Similarsequence
8
nounhistoricaluncountable
Under Roman and Scots law, the taking over of property by one person standing in the place of another.
Under the old law, succession transferred both the assets and the obligations of the deceased to the heir.
The advocate argued that succession placed the son in his father's exact legal position.
Note
A term of historical law, belonging to the Roman and Scots systems. The successor did more than receive property. The successor stepped into the other person's legal place and took on rights and liabilities together, especially on a death. Keep the term for writing about those systems. For an ordinary heir's claim, the general right of possession is the sense to reach for.

Less common meaning

9
nounobsoletecountable
Someone who follows another in a rank or office, or who stands to inherit from them.
Note
Here the word named a person, not an event: the heir or successor himself. John Milton's The History of Britain (1670) writes of kings whose names alone stand registered "for many successions." The use is obsolete and rare. In modern English, successor or heir does this work, and succession is kept for the act of succeeding or the line itself.

Practice

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Origin

The word came through Middle English from Old French succession, which came from the Latin noun successiō.